An important public building of the former suburb of Darlington, the
smallest municipality in Sydney An example of the work of the well known
architect George Allen Mansfield. A fine example of a single storey
Gothic Revival style suburban schools designed by the Architect to the
Council of Education: George Allen Mansfield. Indicating the process of
expansion of the University of Sydney into Darlington.

Darlington School was designed c1877 and was one of a number of
single storey suburban schools designed by the architect to the Council
of Education, George Allen Mansfield. The School was opened in April
1878. At the end of 1975 the school, which was in a poor state of
repair, was transferred to the University. Several buildings were
demolished and the site cleared in 1976. It was originally intended that
the area be used for the construction of a new building for Biological
Sciences, to be relocated to Darlington from Science Road. This plan was
cancelled with the ending of the Australian University's Commission
triennial funding in 1975. The building was renovated for use by the
Department of Music and as a theatre workshop and completed in 1978.

Old Darlington School is a two storey Gothic Revival style
building constructed of polychromatic brickwork with sandstone sills,
kneelers, broaches and string courses. The picturesque composition
includes a spire at the south-west corner, a chimney almost in the
centre of the verandah (to the west elevation) and gables to the south
and west. Blond brick is used for the body of the walls and red brick is
used to accentuate arches and the quatrefoil window to the main gable.
Red bricks have been recessed to form a cross motif, based on brick
modules. This motif occurs on the spire and below the sill to the main
gable. The timber bargeboards are very fine. The roof is slate, with the
exception of the verandah (which appears to be a later addition). The
curtilage of the building has been substantially altered and it is now
set in a park like setting. All of the outbuildings, weather sheds &c
that would have been associated with the school have been removed. The
original layout of the plan has not been confirmed. Many of the smaller
schools also contained a residence. The central portion may have been
intended as accommodation however it is likely that both of the larger
rooms, with gables and lancet windows, were intended as classrooms.